Allentown Crime Down, But Rapes Doubled In '85

Allentown's overall crime rate decreased 2.3 percent last year, but the number of rapes nearly doubled, the FBI said Thursday.

Nationwide, there was a 4 percent increase in crimes reported to the nation's 16,000 law enforcement agencies, representing the first jump since 1981.

Allentown's robbery rate decreased by 11 percent, from 214 in 1984 to 191 in 1985. The burglary rate dropped by 10 percent, from 3,552 in 1984 to 3,546 in 1985. Larceny theft dropped by 1 percent and the number of murders in 1984 - four - stayed the same in 1985.

But the number of reported rapes increased 88 percent, from 25 in 1984 to 47 in 1985.

Allentown Police Chief David M. Howells said: "The number of reported rapes nearly doubled. We don't know if rapes have increased. Obviously people are reporting more rapes, but I don't know how that equates to the actual number of rapes."

Some of the larger U.S. cities reported only a slight increase or even a decrease. Crime dropped 0.9 percent in Los Angeles and 6.4 percent in Washington, D.C. New York had an increase of 0.2 percent, while complete figures were not available for Chicago.

Since 1930, the FBI has tabulated crime through a series of selected offenses, including murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft and motor-vehicle theft.

There was no "common explanation" for the 4-percent hike in crime across the nation, said William Carter, an FBI spokesman, although FBI officials found clues in talking with state and local law enforcement agencies.

"They did cite, among the sources, more transient populations and early release of prisoners," said Carter. "All explanations seemed confined to local conditions rather than a pervasive national problem."